I’m always on the lookout for ways to work smarter, not longer, while still eating right. It’s one of the reasons I love eggs. I can make a quick, healthy meal I know everyone will love in half an hour. Here are my top time-saving tips for making crêpes:

This weekend while shopping for a stock pot, I also came home with a crêpe pan. Busy with my head down, serious about comparing stock pots, my daughter wandered down the store aisle and holding up a crêpe pan cheerfully said, “Look! We can make crêpes. Let’s get this mommy!” I know she’s thinking of a recent trip to Quebec City where we had our fill of sweet and savory crêpes, so of course I say yes. And here begins our latest fun food adventures making crêpes! First up in this series of posts on crêpes, I share why I think crêpes are terrific.

Eggs are highly nutritious offering 14 essential nutrients including an excellent source of hunger-curbing protein and a moderate amount of fat. The fat in an egg is found in the yolk. There are 5 grams of fat, not a lot, a bit more than a teaspoon. That’s about the same amount of fat you’d find in other nutritious choices like a cup of lower fat 2% milk. How much fat can you eat in a day? Women should aim for 45-75 grams of fat a day and men 60-105 grams of fat a day. Eggs can easily fit into your fat “budget” for the day. Wondering where most of the fat in the Canadian diet comes from?

Egg whites and egg yolks offer different nutrients, so to get the full 14 nutrient package, it’s best to eat the whole egg. Just how does the nutrition profile of egg whites and egg yolks vary? Take a look.

Cereal with milk is a go-to breakfast choice for many but emerging science suggests that won’t deliver enough protein. Adding eggs to our weekday routine can help. Convincing research is showing that not only do we need more protein than we once thought but that breakfast is the meal most short changed for protein. For ultimate health, we need protein throughout the day. That’s why experts now suggest we think about protein needs per meal, not protein needs per day. Ideally, adults should aim for 20-30 grams of protein per meal. Cereal with milk?

I grew up eating eggs fried, scrambled, poached or made into a delicious western sandwich. Quiche would have been a pretty fancy dish for my immigrant Irish mom to make. Maybe that’s why when I hear strata or frittata I have this momentary brain freeze and I have to stop and think, which one is made with the bread again? I’m guessing I may not be the only one. So, for all of us who are too afraid to ask what the heck is the difference between a strata and a frittata, here it is. And for you culinary wizards, skip ahead to the recipes.

Hallowe’en can be a frantic, flurry of frightful fun and I have to say I love it all. There’s dinner to make, kids to squeeze into costumes ready to burst from the coats we insist they wear underneath, reminders to keep safe, and Jack-o-lanterns to light. It may be tempting to order-in, but why do that when you can make a quick and delicious meal with eggs? If you’ve got eggs, you’ve got options. Here are six easy ideas you can pull off even on a busy Hallowe’en night. Enjoy!

Are you familiar with, Chopped, The Food Network’s TV show where chefs compete against each other and the clock to make a dish based on a bag of surprise ingredients? Now imagine a kiddie version, in your kitchen.

Protein-rich eggs for breakfast curbs hunger helping us to stay on-task in the morning. OK you knew that one but how about this? Eggs are also one of the best sources of choline. That’s a B-vitamin used to make a brain chemical needed for memory.

Our body’s break down the protein in food and basically reformulate it to make skin, muscle, bone, hormones, enzymes and more.

Emerging science suggests that we have been underestimating how much protein we need. Given that, I’d say it’s important to make sure that you are getting the current recommended amounts and not less. Here’s how. The simple route is to follow Canada’s Food Guide.

Do your kids happily gobble up fatty fish (salmon, trout, sardines, mackerel or herring) twice a week? If so, chances are they likely have their healthy omega-3 fats covered.

News though from the Canadian Nutrition Society Conference on Dietary Fatty Acids this January, confirms that most kids still fall short on getting enough DHA. That’s the type of omega-3 fat researchers have found is critical for optimal brain and eye development.

I say, “optimal” because there is no evidence DHA will make our kids smarter beyond their natural potential.

The eggs at your grocery store are farm fresh. About 95% of the eggs sold in Ontario are produced in Ontario and it only takes an impressive 3 to 7 days for an egg to go from farm to table. That includes the time it takes to collect, wash, grade, pack and ship eggs to your local grocery store. 3 tips to keep that Grade A egg quality and freshness:

I recently had a friend tell me she did not know that half the protein in eggs comes from the yolk. It got me thinking, so often when we hear "egg yolk" we think cholesterol. Yes the cholesterol is in the yolk and for most healthy adults, research spanning over 10 years now shows eating an egg every day does not increase risk for heart disease. So just for the record, most of the nutrients are in fact in the yolk. Here's what's packed into that little yolk:

You might guess a nutrition blog on eggs would be all about nutrients and health.

I think learning how to make great tasting food that’s also good for you is equally important. After all, we eat food, not nutrients.

Sometimes though the fear of failure can hold us back from cooking something new. Maybe you’d love to make crêpes but you’re not sure how to fill them or you wish you knew the trick to make an omelet fluffy.

I bet if I asked you, can eggs part of a healthy, well-balanced diet, you'd agree. Less well known are the details like how many eggs make a serving and how many servings are recommended each day. That's because for many of us the last time we really looked at Canada's Food Guide might have been back in fifth grade health! As a dietitian, the Food Guide is often the backbone of my healthy eating advice. Here’s a quick review of how eggs fit.

Feeding babies just got a little easier. New infant feeding guidelines released from Health Canada, list whole eggs (yes, that’s the white and the yolk) as first foods for babies 6 months of age, provided there is no history of food allergies. It turns out, there is no evidence that holding off on giving egg whites prevents allergies (again, provided there is no history of food allergies).

A friend from the US who recently moved to Canada was surprised to find out about our nut-free policy at schools. I was equally surprised to find out that where she taught in the US, the kids with allergies sit separately from the other children who are allowed to bring in peanut butter and the like. The surprise turned to semi-panic at the thought that peanut butter is now never an option for her son’s school lunch. The conversation moved to what I pack for protein in my kids’ lunches.

A friend from the US who recently moved to Canada was surprised to find out about our nut-free policy at schools. I was equally shocked to find out that where she taught in the US, the kids with allergies sit separately from the other children who are allowed to bring in peanut butter and the like. Wouldn’t those sticky peanut butter fingers find their way throughout the school? The surprise turned to semi-panic at the thought that peanut butter is now never an option for her son’s school lunch. The conversation moved to what I pack for protein in my kids’ lunches.

Lazy, slow summer days when breakfast is more often brunch is enough to give anyone the back to school routine jitters. However, showing our kids that no matter how busy life gets we still make time to eat breakfast is definitely a good thing. These breakfasts can take one task out of busy mornings and still give you the satisfaction knowing everyone can take on the challenges of the day and feel great with a high protein, healthy breakfast.

Need ideas to keep busy these last few weeks of summer? After paying for camps and a summer holiday you may be looking for fun, free things to do. Why not use some of those lazy days to plan, shop and cook a snack or a meal together? As a dietitian and parent, I can talk about nutrients in food forever but if kids don't learn how to cook those foods, really what's the point?! Here are some tips I've learned along the way:

If there is one thing that has become clear to me in 20 years of being a dietitian it is this: it’s our dietary patterns or what we eat (and drink) day in and day out that really matters. No single food makes or breaks a healthy diet. When we start chasing down “super nutrients” and “bad nutrients” I worry we can lose sight of this and I’m not certain the end results net us where we want to be.

Sometimes we need a little nudge like this study to find ways around our typical excuses for skipping breakfast. Turns out it’s men aged 19-30 who are the least likely to eat breakfast with about 1 in 5 skipping breakfast on any given day. Just last month the Harvard School of Public Health reported that after following over 29,000 “healthy” men from 1992 - 2008 (16 years), those who skipped breakfast had 21% higher risk of type two diabetes than did men who ate breakfast. This was true even after accounting for known risk factors including BMI (Body Mass Index - weight/height ratio).

Eat some protein at each meal. That’s pretty standard nutrition advice these days. The main reason being protein helps us to feel full, longer. Given that, I thought it would be interesting to compare typical breakfast protein choices. Now, these are all excellent choices and we should be choosing a variety of protein-rich foods. That said, I still find this quite interesting and a good reminder to include eggs as regular part of your protein mix.